Ways to Prepare Carrots
by The Switching Expert
Summary: It was supposed to be a regular gaming session. Jokes being made, hilarity, just a fun thing to do between best friends. However, something went wrong before the hilarity. And now these two girls have taken on the roles of both Louie and Olimar. Quite literally. [Contains strong language] (I DO NOT OWN PIKMIN)
1. First Day

"So... They just. Sold his spaceship."

"Pretty much."

"... Damn. And he went through hell putting it back together you said?"

"He had a month of vacation and he spent the entire month finding parts of his ship and avoiding death. In short, he had the worst vacation in history."

"That's the truth. Wait a second, is that a bottle cap?"

"Yeah, they're all, like, an inch and a half or so tall."

"And they managed to obtain interstellar travel before us?"

"We're all dead."

"Well, shit."

If any of you out there don't know what's going on or what we're even talking about, my best friend, Victoria (Tori for short), and I started Pikmin 2 while hanging out at my house. I was trying to show her what made it so great, but at the moment, she was really making it hard to explain. I liked the humor she was giving about it though. It really made it more fun.

"Holy shit, that bottle cap was worth a hundred bucks technically?"

"Well... It's more than he makes in a year, so hopefully it's more than a hundred dollars to them."

"Yeah, hopefully! Because if it was just a hundred bucks, then he'd be better off at Mickey D's!"

At that, I just began to laugh. Why was I even bothering with explaining things? This was much better. One of the reasons why I loved Tori so much as a friend.

It really was crazy how much our personalities differed, despite us being so close. I was more calm and collected, tending to be more focused on things. Tori, however, was more passionate and more focused about stuff she liked rather than things that could be important. Yet, it was never a dull moment when she was around.

Now. How were we going to play a single player game with two people?

It would be hard, but both Tori and I had agreed to pass the controller back and forth when we switched between captains.

She decided on being Louie, because, and I quote, 'I have no clue what the hell I'm supposed to do and I want to be a chef. By what you've told me, he's that one co-worker that doesn't know what the hell he's supposed to do and he wants to be a chef. He's my spirit animal.'

Now that I thought about it, it really was uncanny. Tori was studying to be a chef because of her celebrity crush on Gordon Ramsey. She really loves it when he tells horrible chefs and restaurant owners just how awful their food is. To be honest, Tori actually has been making really good progress. I'm happy for her.

As soon as the ship had reached the Valley of Repose, something... Odd had begun to happen.

"Aw, why did the screen cut off? I was gonna play soon, right?" Tori whined as I went to inspect the television.

Trying to press the 'on' button... Nope. No dice. I tried again.

Nada.

Finally, I tried to fiddle around with the channels and videos. It was only then that the screen suddenly became a bright white.

"Gin..?" Tori asked nervously, "Is that supposed to happen?"

No. It wasn't. As suddenly as the white screen appeared, a sudden text began to type across the blank space.

[WELCOME. GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR ADVENTURE.]

"Is this game a bootleg or wha—,"

Well, I couldn't really tell if Tori had finished that question or not, because at that moment, a sensation of electricity went through my entire body. As I fell to the floor of my room in pain, I heard a second 'thump' right next to me. Could Tori be dealing with the same thing?!

I tried to keep my consciousness, but eventually, everything went blurry... Then dark.

— —

I awoke to shaking all around me. As if I was on top of a washing machine or a dryer. It took me a while for the blurriness to fade, but after I could see clearly, it was apparent that I was in a cockpit of some sort flying through a bunch of trees.

Yeah, that seems about ri—WAIT NO IT DOES NOT!

In a frenzy, I began to look for the steering mechanism. Button, button, screen... Cupholder?

OKAY HERE IT IS!

Shakily, I began to steer whatever I was in through the dark trees with as much grace as I could. Which was about as graceful as a pigeon trying to pilot a fighter jet. And everyone knows that if a pigeon pilots a fighter jet, they're bound to crash. Which... Is exactly what happened.

As soon as I had made impact with the tree, the aircraft I had been piloting was officially crashing to the ground. I wasn't knocked out of it, at least. And I had a (questionable) feel for the controls now. I could probably graduate from a pigeon piloting to a duck piloting and try to make an emergency landing. Yet... I heard a scream. Was someone with me? This felt too real to be a dream, so... Did I just kill someone with my bad piloting?!

Okay, calm down. First, land and assess the situation and possible damages. Find out what's going on. Find the other guy and hope they're still alive. Then try to figure out where I was.

After finding a suitable but... Familiar place to land, I was in the middle of trying to find a way to safely make my way to the ground before I was suddenly EJECTED FROM MY COCKPIT AND THE GROUND MADE ITS WAY INTO MY FACE INSTEAD!

As I lay there in pain, a mechanical voice buzzed through the helmet I was wearing—helmet?

"BRRRZZZZZZZT! That was close! I have averted a crash landing. Running diagnostics..."

Wait...

"Alert! Danger! Louie must have somehow fallen out of his cockpit!"

This... This can't be real. Am I..?

"... He is not responding via communicator. He is either flouting protocol or in danger!"

Am I in PIKMIN?!

"Olimar! You must find Louie before he freezes to death in the cold of this planet!"

Olimar? Am I seriously Olimar? One glance to my red gloves confirmed that I was wearing his spacesuit, but... Am I seriously a guy now? "Wait a moment! Look!"

The ship's exclamation got me back on track. Lifting my head up from the ground, I could see five of the original red Pikmin, fighting off against a dwarf bulborb.

This... Really wasn't what my mind was prepared for. I admit, I have a little plushie of a Bulbmin, but this? This is just plain hard to process. The enemy and the Pikmin were AS REAL AS I WAS!

"Olimar, your pulse is rising quite quickly... Are you alright?" I heard the ship ask me, "If you are worried about Louie, you should first save those Pikmin from being eaten! Your reports have stated how they helped you, so they must be of some help in finding Louie! You DO remember how to whistle them to their side, correct?"

"Y-yeah..." was all I could reply. That definitely wasn't in the game. Wow... And my voice was Olimar's. Because of course it was. After all, I needed more to make this uncomfortable for me.

The ship buzzed, seemingly skeptical about my response. "You seem too stubborn to admit that you need to be reminded. Simply blow the whistle connected to your helmet and point to the Pikmin. Now do you remember?" the ship asked, almost impatiently. So, it's more literal here. Well, I didn't exactly see any B-buttons or anything, so it made sense. Taking a breath, I grabbed hold of the whistle and, with a point, blew.

Almost instantly, the walking red carrot people came running my way, surrounding me; their beady eyes seemed to show that they were awaiting my directions eagerly. Seeing them in person really was something. In fact, they were... Pretty cute.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by the ship. "The Pikmin ran to your side! They seem to remember you, Captain Olimar! How fascinating."

Well, yeah. They remember OLIMAR. Unfortunately for these little guys, I'm not really him. In fact, they might just figure it out faster than the ship when they hang around me for a little bit. But wait. If I'm in Pikmin, then is Tori here too? Well first, there was now a hungry dwarf bulborb coming right towards me, so this definitely was something that should be addressed first.

"Give them instructions and do not delay! Grip them tightly and throw them at the beast!"

Well, I guess it isn't rocket science. I just have to throw the Pikmin at it and hope one lands directly on top of it. No biggie. Grasping one of the Pikmin in my hand, I backed up and gave the strongest throw I could muster.

Well, it worked. But I overshot it by a bit. Time to try again. With another throw, it landed right... To the left of it. I could hear the ship buzz in my ear, "With an aim like that, I am surprised that you survived here."

I was REALLY tempted to retort. But it was more important that I finished off this thing. This time, I decided to not throw as hard. With a toss... It landed! Not accurate enough to one-shot it, but at least I did it! Using the same method as before, I chucked more Pikmin onto it, which resulted in the tiny warriors pummeling the small bulborb with their leaves. It was honestly quite sad to see the thing die up close and in person. The way it squealed before dying seemed more real than before.

Despite my sorrow for the creature, I felt... Accomplished, in a way? It was a pretty bittersweet feeling. That's when I heard the ship buzzing frantically.

"Attention! Captain Olimar! I have just reestablished my communications link with Louie!" it announced, "It is fortune that we have managed to confirm his safety. Press the button on your neck to communicate with him! ... I am quite interested in the details of his condition."

With a nod, I felt around my neck until I found the said button. After a moment of hesitation, I pressed it.

— —

This was officially the worst day ever. One second, I'm with Gin playing a game about getting out of corporate shit, next thing I know, I'm falling through the sky. I had been in the same position of a face-plant for a while now, not in the mood to get up and instead wait for me to wake up.

But everything I was feeling felt so real. I was cold. I was sore. And worst of all? I was hungry. None of these felt so real in a dream before. Getting up from the ground, I could see that the snow had broken my fall. Somewhat. However, the imprint it had... It looked like one of those tiny space guys that were in the game Gin and I were playing. That... Was really weird.

At that moment an alarm-like sound echoed around me. It took me a few seconds, but it eventually registered that it was ME wearing the suit. That's when I heard a robot sounding like voice ask, "Louie! Allow me to assess your condition, as per safety protocols. Are you at all injured?"

"Nah, I'm goooooohhhuh?" I began, but trailed off. My name isn't Louie. And I KNOW I didn't sound like that... Something weird was going on. The buzzing continued, then the robo-voice spoke again, "Is that so? Then my concerns are eased. Our communication link shows that you are nearby."

"Uh, okay?"

"Can you make your way to our location and rejoin us? I will navigate for you. Hold down the communications button on your neck to obtain information about the terrain."

I really wasn't sure who the robot was referring to when it said 'us'. Maybe it and someone else? Whatever it was, I wasn't alone. And from what I know from the movies, being on your own in these kinds of scenarios was a bad idea. And maybe the robot will stop referring to me as 'Louie'.

The robot didn't really have to guide me anywhere, actually. There was only path, after all. So, I just went with it. I walked up the (steep) path and was about to catch my breath when I had reached the top. Well, I was in for an unexpected surprise. Because I was now staring at the weirdest looking set of playground equipment I had ever seen.

"... The hell is this?"

"Louie! The odd object before you appears to be one of the Onions mentioned in Olimar's report!"

This is the weirdest onion I have ever seen... A red Onion, huh? Now I'm wanting to cook up some roasted red onions with some nice black pepper and thyme... Maybe dash it with some rosemary or maybe—

My recipe thoughts were interrupted by a sudden 'pop' from the 'Onion' as a red seed of some sort slowly floated to the ground and planted its way inside. Almost a second later, a leaf stretched its way out of the soil and... Glow.

Okay, this dream was taking a turn for the weird.

"The seed the Onion ejected just sprouted!"

No shit Sherlock, but NOT EVEN THE FASTEST GROWING PLANT ON EARTH GROWS THAT FAST!

"According to Olimar's report, you can pluck it from the ground."

Okay. So I just pull it out like a weed? Okay then. Gripping the stalk, I pulled with all my might until the sprout eventually started to come loose. Damn, it really is stuck in there. With one final tug, it was finally unearthed and flew right over my head. Turning around, I was met with... A red carrot. With eyes. And hands. And legs.

The robot spoke once again, "Louie, this must be one of the Pikmin creatures from Olimar's report. It is staring at you."

A CARROT WITH EYES IS STARING AT ME.

"You can issue objectives and direct their movements by pointing in the direction intended as they follow you and disband them with a short blow of your whistle."

I DON'T WANT THIS THING TO FOLLOW ME.

"Olimar's description of these creatures resembling Pikpik Carrots was strikingly accurate..."

Yeah, actually. A nice, spicy chili carrot with brown sugar and pumpkin spice to add a hint of sweetness to the kick of the spices and cooked delicately with—

"Louie... My sensors have detected drool at the corner of your mouth. Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

I want to make those chili carrots.

All of the sudden, the carrot-thing took a step towards me. Now, being the brave person that I am, I did what any courageous aspiring chef would do in this situation.

Scream and run from the chili carrot.

Looking behind me, the carrot was CHASING ME!

"OH GOD, WHY AM I NOT WAKING UP?! THIS IS A NIGHTMARE! ALL OF THE MEALS I HAVE CREATED ARE OUT FOR VENGEANCE!"

"Louie! The Pikmin will not harm you!"

With the robot's reassurance, I slowed to a stop. It didn't look like it was out to kill me... Well, I guess I should do a thing? With a look to what appeared to be a flower, it definitely wasn't what I had expected. The center of it was red with the number '1' plastered neatly onto it.

I decided to stop questioning the logic of all this. So... What do I do? Looking to the 'Pikmin' next to me, I gave it a shrug, indicating my confusion. With this motion, the Pikmin ran up to one of the flowers and started BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF IT! As the flower was flattened into the ground, only the large, red pellet-like object remained. The Pikmin then began to carry it away to the 'Onion'.

It placed the pellet into the center of the light and began to dance around as the pellet got SUCKED UP INTO IT. Moments later, the flower on top began to spin and two more seeds popped out. At first, I was stumped as to why this happened and why there were two of the sprouts instead of one, like the number said. Maybe the color had something to do with it? Well whatever! Right now, this thing made MORE of itself right in front of me.

"The Onion ejected more seeds!"

No shit, Mr. Holmes. No. Shit.

"The pellet from that flower must have nutrients that breeds more Pikmin!"

Well, at least that answers a question I had.

"Yes! The Pikmin gather nutrients, haul them to the Onion, and further propagate their species! It's a Pikmin mother ship!"

So, this thing is a literal "mother" ship? Wow, okay. I'm never going to hear that word the same way ever again.

"According to Olimar's report, after pulling one Pikmin out of the ground, it becomes easier to do and can be done rapidly."

The Pikmin once again stared at me, as if he was anticipating that I pulled his new buddies out. "Okay then. Mind if I, uh, call you Chili?" I asked, which caused it to tilt its head in slight confusion. Whatever. His name is now Chili. "Okay, Chili. Let's get your friends out of here," I announced, which resulted in a happy little noise from Chili. The first one was, indeed, quite hard to pull out, but after going to the next, it was noticeably easier than the last.

This process continued until the remaining four flowers were now a part of my Pikmin squad (I apparently had to throw them, but they seemed pretty chill about it). "Okay, now. Chili, you ready to go?"

Fortunately, Chili had remembered our friendship and gave a noise of what I assume was confirmation. Now that I thought more about what I had been doing, it really seemed like the weird Japanese shit I've seen online. If it really impacted my dreamscape this much, then I really need to stop watching those commercials.

Now with my crew of about ten or eleven Pikmin, we headed off. Towards adventure. Into the unknown. It only took me a few paces before I stumbled upon a pillar of epic proportions. A pillar that, when I approached, it shown majestically. The beauty of this—wait that's a Duracell battery.

I could hear the buzzing of the redundant robot as it began to tell me something obvious, "Perhaps this is one of the treasures that we are searching for!"

"Wait, what?"

"The only reason we found it here was because this is where you crash landed. How fortunate!"

"No no no, wait. This is treasure?"

"Yes! It might not look like the one that you had seen at home, but I can assure you, this is treasure!"

If that's "treasure", then I would be rich as a motherfucker.

"I would like to appraise it, but you must regroup with Olimar. Can you see him?"

I tried to look past the ice wall by jumping around like an idiot, but I couldn't really make out anything aside from the edge of an antenna looking thing. If it really was an antenna, then maybe that's where I should go. Following the icy path, I was met with an obstacle that further confirms the strangeness of the world I was in.

My path was blocked by a giant paper bag. This is just plain sad. But maybe if I throw my carrot crew up there, it'll flatten it? Worth a shot. With a rapid fire of Pikmin, every last one, including Chili, was tossed up onto it.

Seems like that won't do the trick.

"Hey, uh, my path is a little blocked—"

"Don't worry, I'm on it."

— —

Throwing the last five Pikmin onto the bag, it successfully compressed under the weight. Before me, was Louie... But maybe, just maybe, it was Tori on the inside. Louie gave a small wave, "Uh. Thanks for that."

Hm. It'll be hard to tell if it's really Tori. Maybe it'll become apparent when I'm around him—or her? Screw it, I'm calling him Louie until further notice.

I couldn't really say much of anything, because the ship had interrupted me.

"Captain Olimar! Louie! You have reunited at last! This has been quite a troublesome start to our trip,"

Louie and I looked to each other, the both of us thinking the exact same thing: It's been hell.

Seeing the silent agreement of the redundancy that the ship had been giving, it decided to try to change the subject, "But now you must feel assured that your combined wits can get you through anything! Correct? From now on, try to stick together and separate only when necessary."

With a nod, I looked over to Louie. "Alright. First, let's take this thing to the Onion to make more Pikmin," I told Louie, pointing to the deceased dwarf bulborb. Louie just stared at it, then at me. "You mean, you killed it? What even IS it?"

"It's called a dwarf bulborb. And the Pikmin I had did the deed. They're not just for gathering stuff. Now let's get it over to the Onion before we get the treasure," I explained, then chucked six of our sixteen Pikmin at it. As soon as they had a good grip on it, they went on their way.

As we walked with them, I could now see the Courage Reactor. Or, in other words, one of those bigger Duracell batteries.

... Hold on. Will I have to make the journals now? I don't have photographic memory and have no idea what Olimar had put... I'll just write my own treasure logs! And as for the rest, I'll just use notes Olimar had from his first expedition. And for the enemies that weren't documented by him... Well, I can probably make my own biology observations.

By the time we had arrived at the Onion, I was already contemplating what I would write. If I don't cause canon to turn upside down, then I'll probably be fine. After all, this wouldn't be permanent... Right?

Now with twenty Pikmin in our battalion, we were officially ready to end the day. All we had to do was dig it up and wait for the little guys to bring it on over. I was really glad that we were going to have the day end. I was cold and hungry. And apparently, Louie's a good cook. So I guess I'll see that firsthand.

After waiting impatiently for the battery to be delivered, the ship chimed through our helmets. "This is worth 280 Pokos! I shall name it... The Courage Reactor!"

With an exhausted sigh I plopped to the ground into a sitting position with Louie following suit.

The ship gave a happy buzz, "Our first day of exploration has yielded our first treasure! We will be done in record time!"

Louie just gave a tired, "Woohoo..." in response. Yep. I feel the exact same way. "Thank you for naming it. I don't know if I could really think of anything clever at the moment," I admitted, which earned a scoff from the ship, "Perhaps I should rename it into 'Slacker Reactor' instead. After all, the names given reflects my current "thinking". Then again, the name 'Slacker Reactor' doesn't seem that appealing for a sales pitch..." it trailed off.

Oh great, I changed the name of a treasure to something I'm positive that I won't ever forget.

"I might as well keep it that way it is. Seeing as you managed to find an extremely valuable treasure on your first day even after being separated is quite an accomplishment. I can imagine that the ordeal could be tiring. So, to commemorate our very first treasure, I will allow you both to take the rest of the day off. But you had better not think that this will happen again!"

Well, we both just got teased by the ship. I guess it really adds to the experience in its own cruel way.

After dismissing the Pikmin to their Onion, both Louie and I were returned inside the ship.

Oh. Oh yeah. I gotta pilot this thing. Well, as an official figurative duck piloting a rocket, I'm sure that I'll be fine.

I felt so relieved about being able to achieve liftoff.

—

EXTRA: Gin's Entries

Courage Reactor:

Despite my... Expert piloting, we had managed to crash into an obstacle and lose track of my partner. However, this stroke of bad luck turned into our favor, as this was able to be found. I'm now filled with invigoration to get out of here once everything is said and done! And thus, the Courage Reactor is the perfect name for such an inspiring object.


	2. First Night

The inside of the ship was... Surprisingly bigger on the inside. Sure, the rooms weren't really big and they could only fit at least three people at most, but it had the necessities. Overall, it was kind of like one of those tiny houses or the dream treehouse I never had. The rooms were stacked on top of each other with the com room on top, kitchen/dining room after that, bedroom in the middle, treasure room near the bottom, then the very bottom being the washroom. All of it was very cramped, but livable.

As soon as we took a peek inside of the bedroom, Louie immediately announced, "Top bunk," then went to explore the kitchen. I couldn't help but laugh a little at his quick proclamation of having top bunk. To be honest, I was fine with it. I preferred bottom bunk anyways. It gave me a sense of privacy and my own little space all to myself.

Well, these would be our beds for... However long it takes for us to reach the goal. Taking a look down to the treasure room, something sparked up my curiosity. Exactly how DID the ship keep everything in there? Climbing down, I could see that the room was... Significantly bigger than the others. About as big as my own room back home.

"If you are wondering how it is possible that treasure is kept here, then I shall explain," I heard the ship echo through the room. Oh right, it could probably tell where we were. Well, I was pretty curious, so I gave a nod.

"This is technically for temporary storage. At the end of the day, each treasure is shipped straight to Hocotate via interstellar transportation pod. The pod is sent directly to our designated loan collectors, complete with a copy of the sales pitch. The process repeats until all treasure has been transported out of the room. The process begins at midnight, but it can be sooner depending on how much treasure is obtained. If all of it cannot fit, the remainder is sent off anyways," it explained, "Now. If you excuse me, I must set up the pod's route for a safe and secure departure. Do not trash my hull while I am "gone"."

Huh. So, there _were_ some laws of science that survived upon arrival after all. This was reassuring, honestly. Having seen so much shit that made no sense whatsoever, I began to miss overall physics in general. As I silently celebrated this, I could feel a pang in my stomach.

Okay then. Hopefully there was something edible here. Louie DID go to check out the kitchen, so maybe he's beginning to make something. Going through the bedroom, I went into the kitchen to find him looking at various ingredients. Finally, he sighed, "I'm too hungry for something that takes too long, so I guess it'll be spaghetti..."

Maybe when Louie gets ahold of some of the things in a cave, he'll get some ideas. Speaking of ideas...

"Hey, Tori? What did you decide on making for dinner?"

"It's gonna have to be pasta, but I could easily make a cream cheese and tomato sauce to stir into the spaghetti and create a wonderful creamy yet—"

He paused right in the middle of describing his plans (it wasn't helping my hunger, so thank god).

"Hey, uh... What'd you just call me right now?"

"Tori. The only person I know that describes her dishes like she's hosting her own cooking show on the Food Channel."

I could just tell by the look I was given that my guess hit the nail on the head. My best friend was now Louie.

"Is-is your name Gin?" she asked nervously, which I responded with a nod. This caused Tori to dash over and give me a tight hug. "Oh my god, Gin! This has been the worst dream ever! I'm taller than you now, but it's still you in there! You're my moral support in this dream! All I have to do is wake up now! Then you won't be some short guy that makes less than a hundred bucks a year and needs to go on a diet!"

Okay, that last statement made me feel a little bit offended.

I mean... It... It could have been worse. I could have been trapped as Olimar's boss. Yeah! I should just be grateful for this!

But hold on. She thinks it's all a dream? "Um... Tori? I have a little bit of bad news for you."

"You don't want me to make you salads, rinsed in water and topped with a dash of some zesty dressing—"

"God dammit, Tori."

After a laugh, she released me from her hug and began to fill a pot with water. "Okay, I'll stop... For now. But really, what's the problem?" Tori asked as she glanced over her shoulder.

This was really going to be hard. How would she react? Should I be careful about it?

No. I need to tell her without interruptions. Not going to let it drag on, I just said it like it was. "This isn't a dream."

Tori had just finished filling the pot and already had set the it on the small stove when I had said that. She turned away from the pot and looked directly at me, her new face studying mine.

After trying to detect any lies from my statement, she skeptically replied, "And how do you know that?"

"Because this feels too real to be a goddamn dream! The cold we felt! The pain of being slammed into the ground! Our exhaustion after we finished what we needed to do! The hunger we're experiencing right now! It's real!"

My outburst caused Tori to flinch. Okay maybe I went a little bit too far... Taking deep breaths, I followed with an apology, "I'm sorry... I went a little overboard. The stress from today just really got to me."

With a wave of a hand, Tori dismissed it as she checked the water for boiling. "It's fine, man. But if this really isn't a dream... How do we get back to our regular selves?"

With a hum, I thought carefully about it. "Maybe we have to finish the game? It's only logical."

The spaghetti was dumped into the pot.

"So, long'll that take?"

"... Oh _SHIT_!"

Tori had just opened a can of tomato sauce when I had exclaimed that. "Wh-what's wrong?!" she stammered as she set down the container. I could only return with a pale expression on my face. "It... It goes by days. If it's in real time... Then..."

I could tell that Tori had understood, because her eyes were now completely wide. "How fast did you beat this game again?" she asked suddenly.

I could only feel despair as I said the fateful number.

"... About forty days for 100%."

She was completely silent. Slowly turning to the spaghetti, Tori just began to stir. In complete monotone, she only said to me, "I'll call you when it's ready."

The way she said it... I could tell that my best friend was trying her hardest to comprehend the amount of days that we could be stuck here. As I sadly trudged up to the com room, I booted it up and began to read the mail from Olimar's boss.

'You found your first bit of treasure! Fine work! Our future depends on your efforts, so check your treasure hoard regularly. I'll check in often. Keep up the pace!'

The ship probably sent a report beforehand. It made sense. Now for a reply. Hm. I guess just be myself and make myself seem professional?

'Thank you for the praise, sir. But I still am far from done. There's much treasure to be found and a huge debt to think about. I'll be sure to work as hard as I can!"

Hopefully that would work.

... Now what?

I guess I could set up shop and make my bed more inviting. And maybe make Tori's comfortable as well. It's the least I could do to cheer her up. Leaving the com room, I went to get blankets and pillows from the small closet in our room.

— —

Forty days... If it were in-game days, then it'd be fine. But currently, the two of us _were_ 'in-game'. So, did that mean days here would be the same as days in the real world? And... And this isn't even a game anymore. There's no way we could finish this in forty days when things were so real now.

Well, the tomato and cream cheese mix was ready. Just had to wait for the spaghetti and bam.

... Cooking while I was hungry usually made me feel so excited. But right now, I just couldn't feel anything remotely happy. This whole ordeal was really too upsetting to even act happy.

After testing one of the noodles, they were just about perfect. Leaning over to the bedroom's entrance, I called out, "It's ready," then began to serve myself up. It wasn't the first time I had to make this dish, actually. I usually make when there's nothing much. Or if I'm too tired to really be fancy. But, it still is flavorful.

I could hear light footsteps come from the bedroom as Gin appeared. No, I wasn't mad at her. I was actually glad she let me know. If she hadn't, then I'd have to find out the hard way. But, it appeared that she felt at fault. My thoughts were confirmed once she took a plate from the poor excuse of a dining table, "Tori, I'm really sorry. If it weren't for me, we would still be ourselves and probably be making fun of bad movies at my house."

I couldn't help but laugh. Yep, that was something that we would do. "You really don't have to worry about it. None of this is your fault, mmkay? Now have your spaghetti before I change my mind and give you a salad instead," I joked with a sly smirk. Watching Gin react to these things is too fun to resist.

"Oh, SHUT UP! It's not like I'm the only one here with this issue!"

"That's true... But I'm in better shape than you are."

"Not by much."

"Oh. And I'm taller."

"Congratulations. You are literally one centimeter taller than me. You must be so proud."

After this exchange was completed, the two of us began to laugh hysterically. In between laughs, Gin just stated, "This is the stupidest argument we have ever had!"

I nodded in agreement, still snickering, "Our dinner's getting cold, so let's continue this conversation later. Right now, lemme know what you think about this meal!"

— —

Well, I wasn't hungry anymore. I was just plain sleepy. Such is the case when one has too much to eat. Mixed in with the fatigue from today, I was positive I would fall asleep soon after my head touched the pillow. Snuggling up in my small area of the room, I could hear Tori quietly speak to me.

"Gin? I wanna let you know that I'm glad you're here with me."

This made me smile as I took in those words. What she said really warmed my heart. With a smile still plastered on my face, I softly replied back, "I feel the same way. By the way, the spaghetti? It was amazing. You're really improving, you know that?"

I could just imagine her blushing with flattery as I heard her giggle. "Thanks. I've made that tons of times, so I guess you really do improve when you mass produce it."

It was my turn to laugh a little as I replied, "Yep. Well, every exploration day in Pikmin begins at six and ends at six, so let's get some sleep. Good night, Tori."

"G'night, Gin."


	3. Second Day

Getting up at five wasn't new for me. I had my own job to do back home and I was already used to getting up early. Tori, however, seemed to be a different case. Once I had woken up, it took me a while to register where I was. But after remembering the previous day, I decided to see if Tori had woken up already.

Climbing up to her loft on the bunk bed, I just sighed. She was sleeping like a log.

"Tori, get up," I urged, nudging her a little bit. This resulted in her turning away from me, covers tightly pulled over her body even more as she grumbled, "Dad, it's the weekend... I don't have any classes today..."

Well, she's not budging. At times like these, you have to be creative. And by creative, I meant putting my helmet on and blowing the whistle right at her. This definitely got her up. Because as soon as I blew the whistle, she gave a yelp and fell off of her bunk. Seeing as my idea had worked, I took off the helmet as she sleepily gave me the stink eye.

"Asshole," Tori grumbled as she got up from the floor. I just shrugged, "Well, I can't help that we have to get ready. Be lucky that I woke you up an hour before we had to leave. It gives us enough time to get ready to go."

I could tell that Tori was waiting for me to leave so that she could go back to sleep. Naturally, I shattered that plan with a single sentence.

"If you go back to sleep, I'll wake you up the same way. Only worse."

"Okay okay, fine! I'll make breakfast—"

"After you're done getting all ready,"

"Okay, _mom_. AFTER I get ready, I'll make breakfast and we can get going."

Without another word, Tori headed downstairs, grumbling incoherent swears, most likely directed at me. I was honestly used to this routine. I was what she called a 'mom friend', which was usually what she called me when I would do stuff like this. Ranging from 'make sure you finish the homework from world history' to 'you _do_ know you could hurt yourself doing that' to 'don't call me "back", call me Gin'.

... Actually that last thing was more of a dad sort of thing. I guess that makes me a mom and dad friend? ... Huh. Well, whatever. Tori wasn't the only one that needed to get ready for the day. So, without stalling any longer, I followed her.

~—~

Getting ready took a bit longer than anticipated. Mainly because neither of us could really get our shit together. Tori tends to take longer than me with the whole getting ready for the day. Normally, I'm a very patient person. But as the minutes ticked away, we really needed to get going.

I had hoped that finishing up first would let Tori have more than enough time to be done in time for breakfast. Apparently not.

"Tori, we really have to get going here."

"Almost done with everything, I promise!"

"You said that ten minutes ago. And it's ten till."

"... Wow, really? _Shit_."

Instantly, the washroom door opened and out came Tori, all ready to go in her suit and everything. I was silent for a bit, then left upstairs.

She got the hint, because she followed soon after me towards the cockpits, not wanting to make me more irritated than I was already. "You don't have time to make anything, so we'll settle with some carrots," I notified, and I could just imagine the disappointment on her new face.

"But I had a great idea! Are you even sure a carrot will tide us over for the rest of the day?" she whined, then flinched when I had tossed her a Pikpik carrot. Studying it in her hands, the only comment she could make was, "That's a big carrot."

Yes. It was. Which is why I had given it to her. Tori still had a disappointed look, however. "Look, I had one and they aren't half bad. So stop being a baby about all this," I sighed. Thankfully, this was enough for Tori to suck up her pride as a chef and just went with it.

Well, she definitely liked it, all right. I was thankful, because if she didn't, she would be complaining about it the entire time. Even after we landed. After everything was said and done, we were just about ready to go.

Before getting into our cockpits, I turned to her and put my hands on my hips. "Okay. I want you to stick by me today and listen rather than get into battles by yourself," I told Tori, who in return gave me an offended look. Using her new height to her advantage, she stood taller than me, "You think I can't handle some weird red looking things?"

"Look, I just don't want you to get hurt. You need to learn the ropes before going around killing wildlife. I know you know how to direct Pikmin, but you need to understand that some of the enem—"

"I got it, I got it! I should be careful. I will be, okay?" she assured with a thumbs up. This... Just concerned me even more. But I couldn't really do anything about it. Right now, I had to pilot with whatever skill I even could muster.

~—~

Well, I had managed to land. That was something. I couldn't really celebrate that accomplishment for long, because the ship had shot both Tori and I right out.

"Good morning, workers! Ready for another day of toiling for the profit of your company?"

Both of us were unamused.

"The Pikmin seem to still be sleeping in their Onion. What lazy creatures!" the ship pointed out, which caused the two of us to turn our attention to the red Onion that was now stationed next to us. Tori just stared at it, then to me.

"How did it—"

"It can fly too."

The ship seemed to be uninterested in Tori's interest in how the Onion managed to fly and continued, "No wonder they lack survival skills! Stand beneath the Onion and call them out!"

Going underneath the Onion, I looked upwards.

So, I just. Call them from here?

"I'm going to need all of you in there to come out!"

Seconds later, twenty red Pikmin came sliding from the Onion's three poles. At the sight of this, Tori completely gushed. "Oh my god! They just slid on down like little tiny firemen! That has to be one of the cutest things I've ever seen!" she chirped, which caused all of the Pikmin to stare blankly at her.

It was at that moment that a single red Pikmin approached her, making a cute little sound as it looked up at her. "Oh! That's right! Gin, I want you to meet Chili!" she announced happily as she presented the Pikmin, apparently known as 'Chili'.

Okay, this just made me smile. She had gotten herself a Pikmin friend. But... Hopefully she doesn't get too attached. After all, who knows what'll happen. Directing two of my Pikmin to the two posies nearby, I watched at they both brought the pellets down.

"Okay. We need to get our numbers up. I'll give you ten and I'll have a group of ten. I think there's stuff around where you fell, so you can handle those while I handle the ones closer nearby. Once we clear out the area, we can pull them all out and move on," I explained as I directed nine more to Tori (since it was obvious that she wasn't going to part with Chili), who returned with a nod, "Alright! See ya when I'm done over there!"

With that, she took off, clearly excited. Huh. Maybe she's actually having fun? It looks like it... I really can't imagine this being fun at all. I mean, we're stuck here—in different bodies, no less—and she's already accepted that? I was completely amazed.

Looking to my own squad of Pikmin, I I could see that the two I had sent out had already finished bringing the pellets to their Onion. Maybe... I should try to see this as how Tori saw it and not just as a game.

"Alright, guys. Ready to increase your population?"

Every Pikmin around me made a resounding little squeak in confirmation. Following direction where Tori had gone, I could see in the distance a few pellet posies ready to be stripped of their pellets. I decided to first take care of getting the '1' pellet and one of the '5' pellets to bring over, then get the last one once they were done carrying those over. So, with Pikmin in hand, I tossed them at the posies and watched as the poor plants were beaten to a pulp.

With the first part of the job done, the Pikmin proceeded with carrying what they could on over to their Onion. All that was left was the final '5' pellet. I only had four with me right now, but I could see Tori's Pikmin arrive from her crash site carrying their own pellets. They, of course, were followed by my proud-looking friend.

"There weren't many there, so I did what I could. Need any help?" she offered, gesturing to her remaining four Pikmin (nice going on her part to figure out that you can make more carry objects faster). Well, I DID need help with the '5' pellet... "Yeah. Think you could help me with carrying this? We both don't have enough to carry it separately, but we have enough together.

Tori was already on it. We both directed our Pikmin to the pellet, which they hoisted up and followed their brethren. By the time that all of the pellets had been sucked up by the Onion, we had around forty or so Pikmin... And Tori still knew which one Chili was. Amazing. Well, we had enough to move on, so that was something. Before I approached the paper bag separating us from the rest of the area, I looked Tori in the eye. "Okay. This is where I want you to just watch and learn from that."

I swear Tori rolled her eyes at me. "I told you before, I won't get myself into shit. I'll be here. Promise," she assured... But somehow, I doubted it. Well, it was time, I guess.

Throwing the entirety of the Pikmin army up onto the bag, it deflated and finally made our way passible.

— —

I really didn't get what she was so worried about. I mean, yeah. The things over there would try to kill us. But you learn better from dealing with it face to face. Well, that's what I believe.

After the bag got pushed down, I could see a living version of the thing that was dead from yesterday, as well as...

"Holy shit."

A bigger version of one. Like. Waaay big. About as big as an elephant almost. It was asleep, but holy _fuck_. That's one big freak of nature.

Already, I saw Gin carefully approach the smaller one, Pikmin firmly in her hand as the thing sniffed the ground. Before it could react, a flurry of red were sent forth at the weird looking creature. Needless to say, that little guy got fucked up.

With a final shriek, the smaller spotty thing fell to the ground, dead as dead can be.

... The circle of life can be scary.

Wait a second, did it just puke out a pellet when it died? Ew. I really hope that the Pikmin aren't seriously gonna bring it back to—aaand they are. Gin threw a few more Pikmin at both the corpse and the slimy looking pellet and the small group went on their way.

Now there was only the elephant-sized one left. Sleeping away. I looked to Gin, eyes wide, "You aren't seriously gonna kill that thing, right?" I asked, in which she replied sternly, "I have to. I gotta g-get it over with. And if I d-don't now, then I n-never will."

Whatever confidence Gin had tried to exude had abandoned her, because at the moment, she was shaking like a leaf. I really couldn't blame her... Having to do something like take on an elephant sized monster would be out of most people's comfort zone. To add to it, Gin has always been a bit timid. This sort of thing wasn't what someone like her should be doing.

After taking deep breaths, she shakily began to approach the giant monster from behind, trembling with every step. With Pikmin in hand, she tried to steady herself, shake off her nerves, and...

She threw.

As soon as the Pikmin had grabbed hold of the beast, it woke up and was obviously no too happy with this development. Gin continued to throw, but as soon as she made eye contact with the monster, she just froze in place, immobilized by fear.

"Gin!"

No response, from her. She was just still frozen in place.

"SNAP OUTTA IT, GIN!"

That got her attention, because as soon as she regained mobility, she dove out of the way, making the monster trip and fall from having missed its target.

The Pikmin used the opportunity to climb it, grabbing hold of its eye stalks and completely beat the shit out of the things. Apparently this was pretty painful, because it started to vigorously shake them off.

The Pikmin that had climbed it were tossed aside, which gave the thing an opportunity to strike. Fortunately, Gin had whistled them away before the damage could be done, which caused it to fall once more.

Apparently, Gin was now filled with adrenaline, because she was throwing Pikmin like crazy. It was at this moment that the monster fell to the ground with a loud 'THUD'!

It was dead.

It took us a while to process it, but it was fucking dead.

After a few seconds with this sudden revelation, Gin fell to the ground, trembling as she curled up. Naturally, I went over to console her. "I-I-I don't think I can do this, Tori..." she said quietly, her voice trembling. I just scoffed and smacked her helmet a little, "You just beat the shit out of an elephant sized whatever-the-fuck-it-is with walking carrots, man! Who else in the world has done that? Nobody!"

Gin turned to face me, a small smile forming on her face. "Th-thank you..."

That's when I noticed something in the distance. It looked a little bit like a... "Is that a crushed soda can?"

Gin got up from the ground, then took a look herself. "Oh yeah, that. It's apparently 'treasure'," she explained.

"So, is everything here just gonna be trash?"

"Not all of it. But right now, one man's junk is another man's treasure."

That saying really did fit right now. With a final gaze at the giant monster (and the gross-looking pellet it had eaten), I asked my partner, "So... We gonna get these all picked up?"

"O-Oh! Right! Let's take care of the red bulborb and the pellet first," she replied, then quickly guided the Pikmin over to the two.

Hold on, so wait... "Did we just kill a mother and her child?" I asked, which Gin just shook her head in response, "Oh, no. They aren't related. The small ones mimic the big ones for protection using their coloration."

"And... How do you know that?"

Gin seemed to stop and think for a bit. "Well, I've played Pikmin a lot, I guess. That's the best reason I can really think of for that."

I decided not to continue on the topic and instead just help her out with pulling out Pikmin.

When we had gotten to our base area, I could see that a '5' pellet flower had grown right next to the Onion. Naturally, I had called over some of the little guys that were hanging out by the Onion to get that one as well. Finally, we went from forty to, like, SEVENTY. And I swear, Chili would have been smiling if he could!

Going back to the area with the crumpled can, the two of us chucked Pikmin right at it and they went off to bring it to the ship. And you'll never guess what it decided to name it.

"This treasure is worth "170 Pokos! I shall call it... The Utter Scrap!"

Yeah.

—

EXTRA: Gin's Entries

Utter Scrap:

The name of this pretty much defines it. It's a huge hunk of scrap metal. I'm honestly not sure what else to say about it. But I'm pretty sure it can be considered modern art or something... I guess?


	4. Emergence Cave

As noon hung over the Valley of Repose, our squad of seventy or so Pikmin were happily following along as Gin and I made our way over to the final blocked off area. Well, it wasn't blocked off by a paper bag, but rather a rootlike formation made into a wall. Huh.

Watching Gin direct our entire group at it, I was soon witnessing the slow destruction of the rootlike wall. "Wow... These little guys are like tiny alien Spartans," I commented, transfixed on the army now demolishing the wall. Hey, it was the first thing that came to mind, cut me some slack.

But I had to admit, watching the Pikmin work their strength on the wall was pretty mesmerizing. Even Gin was pretty transfixed on it.

"So, Gin," I began thoughtfully, snapping her out of her own trance, "How long do these usually take to take down?"

"Um... It depends. I think this one takes a few in-game hours to finish, but that's if you only have about twenty working on it," she replied. After processing this, I just plopped to the ground. "Well, time to play the waiting game. Shit."

My blunt swear in response to Gin's answer was enough to get her smiling. Seems like she couldn't have said it better herself.

Eventually, the two of us started to play a few games to ease the boredom, such as 'Never Have I Ever' and the like. In other words, we retreated to playing little girls' sleepover games to pass the time. Yeah.

After what felt like an eternity, but was probably about an hour and a half, the wall had finally been brought down thanks to our Pikmin troopers. Gin was about to whistle the Pikmin over from the now-destroyed wall when she was interrupted by the ship.

"How could Pikmin destroy such a massive wall? When massed, their might is ferocious!"

I had to agree with the ship on that one. The wall was pretty big compared to us. Plus, they kept at it without a break. That takes endurance. I was snapped out of my thoughts by the ship addressing 'me', "Louie! Did Olimar instruct you on proper Pikmin-commanding protocol?"

"Uh... I've just been told to watch," I replied to the ship's question. I didn't really have any other response aside from that. After all, it was technically the truth. At my answer, the ship seemed to buzz in a more scolding tone, "Apparently not! Olimar! You are failing in your duty as a superior!"

At this, Gin's face instantly flushed red with embarrassment. I had to admit, I felt pretty bad for throwing her under the bus... But hey. I was getting antsy and being told that I had to just watch as someone else did everything was getting to me.

That's when the ship began to instruct more redundancy to us. "Allow me to explain! Grab them firmly by the stem and throw them however hard as you need to and call them back with the whistle on your helmet! Disband them with a short sound of your whistle and issue orders and objectives by pointing and whistling! It is useful for swarming Pikmin around treasure and enemies, or making them march in a straight line!"

Gin and I just looked at each other, each of us wondering just how stupid the ship thinks we are... Or I was. Well, whatever. Time to see what lies ahead.

The first thing that caught my eye was the big lump of dirt ahead of us. As soon as Gin and I approached it, it was clear that it... Was a pretty deep hole. Wow.

"Interesting... Warm air is welling up from the hole in the ground before you. What could lie underground?"

... Wait, was the ship hinting at us to jump in the hole? Glancing over at Gin, she definitely wasn't up for it either.

"... What is wrong? You both show expressions of unease," the ship asked, which caused me to stammer, "Of-of course we're uneasy! We don't know how d-deep this thing is! Jumping down there could get us eaten by weird animals if we survive the fall!"

"Do not fear! The leader's group of Pikmin will join you. I will dispatch my research pod, too. Approach the hole and jump in!"

If I die, it's the ship's fault.

— —

This part wasn't exactly what I was looking forward to. Not by a long shot. But, if we really wanted out of here, then we would have to deal. After making sure all of the Pikmin were accounted for, I took a deep breath, approached the hole...

And stopped myself before I could jump in. Nope, I couldn't do this. With a sheepish look to Tori, I gave her the best smile I could in this situation. "Um... You can go first?" I asked, which caused her to give me a cold stare.

"You need a little help? Because I don't want to deal with this."

"What?"

"You'll thank me later."

Without warning, Tori pushed me into the hole. As I began to scream bloody murder while seeing the light of the outside world slowly get smaller, I could make out Tori jumping after me, followed by our Pikmin. I would have been impressed by her bravery if I weren't showing off what little I had.

Soon, I felt my back collide with the ground rather painfully, followed by Tori, the Pikmin, and the ship's research pod. Once we recovered (and accepting that I will definitely be feeling that later), the ship spoke to each of us, "Intriguing... My heat sensors indicate that this hole's interior is warmer than on the planet's surface."

Now that it mentioned it, I didn't feel chilly at all. I knew that the suits that Olimar and Louie had weren't exactly... Quality, so being in the Valley of Repose wasn't really fun temperature wise. I'd be fine with sticking around in the cave for an extended amount of time.

"Analysis suggests that subterranean areas may support different life-forms than the surface. If you wish to check underground terrain, please press and hold your communicators. I am not just a ship... I am an all-purpose support pod!"

"That actually sounds pretty cool when it's put like that," Tori commented as she took the first few steps into the Emergence Cave. Although there weren't going to be many threats at all, I whistled the Pikmin together and followed her into the next room. What happened next is definitely something I won't ever forget.

"HOLY FUCK, THAT IS A HUGE TANGERINE!" Tori exclaimed as the large fruit came into view. It... Definitely was bigger than I had imagined. Yet, this exclamation caught the attention of a few snow bulborbs, who gave a 'yip' at the sight of us as they approached.

"Okay, you think you can take on one of them?" I asked Tori, who just gave me a sly grin as she began to chuck Pikmin at the bulborbs. As the Pikmin attacked, the white-colored monsters mercilessly chomped at a few until...

The squeak had sounded. The squeak of a Pikmin being devoured.

Tori's entire demeanor changed as soon as she saw that, going from confident to horrified. "Th-that wasn't supposed to—,"

She was interrupted as the very bulborb that had eaten the Pikmin was pummeled by the rest of the red warriors. Tori then saw firsthand what happens when you kill an enemy before it completely ate a Pikmin.

Out from the snow bulborb's mouth, the Pikmin wiggled itself free with a relieved noise, then went to help finish off the last bulborb, leaving Tori completely stunned.

Slowly looking to me, she just gave a point over at the corpse, totally at a loss for words. I guess it was time for me to own up to being a 'superior'.

"There's a window where you can save a Pikmin while something is eating them. You just have to kill the thing before the Pikmin gets eaten. Some are slower than others and some don't eat Pikmin to kill them," I explained as Tori listened intently. With a nod, she looked back at the Pikmin. "Alright, I got it. Thanks for telling me," she replied with a grin.

And so, with the combined efforts of our Pikmin, we had managed to bring back both the Citrus Lump (worth 180) and the Quenching Emblem that totally wasn't a 7Up bottle cap (worth 100). With no other treasure in sight, our team continued on to the hole ahead of us. When we had approached it, the ship contacted us once more, "This hole appears to be quite deep. My sensors indicate more treacherous terrain ahead."

At this, I could see Tori getting a bit uncomfortable.

"Louie, do you recall when you spotted us from your crash site? Be sure to do the same thing and look before rushing in, understood?"

Well, she wasn't up for responding.

"... Your expression tells me you do. Excellent! Then, jump further down into the cave!" the ship urged. Okay, now was the time for me to jump instead of being forced (because that wasn't what I would call a pleasant experience). Taking a few steps back, I cleared my head.

I had survived the first jump... The second one won't be too bad! Yeah!

With a running start, I could feel my legs want to lock up once again. No, not this time! Instead of succumbing to the instinct to stop myself, I took the leap of faith before it could happen.

... Nevertheless, I screamed once more.

Which, honestly, wasn't doing much to help with assuring Tori that we'd be fine.

— —

... Gin really wasn't having a fun time, it seemed.

I could tell that she wanted to act as the superior the ship was goading at her to be. In a way, she already was. I knew fuck all about Pikmin while she was a textbook. To be honest, I was proud that she worked up the courage to jump down further. Now I had to follow with the Pikmin.

Closing my eyes, I jumped after Gin, hearing the Pikmin's squeaks behind me. As I descended, I braced myself for the inevitable pain that would follow.

BAM!

A graceless landing on my part, followed by the Pikmin.

After recovering, I took a look around where we ended up. This place... Apparently was bigger? And warmer, which was a big plus. Seeing that Gin was already up and around, I got up as well. The first thing that caught my eye were more of those white bulb-things. They still were freaks of nature in my eyes.

This time, Gin took a glance at me, then cleared her throat, "Okay... It'll be a little harder to pinpoint it, but there's a spot on top of the bulborbs that kills them instantly if you throw Pikmin on top of it," she explained as she grabbed one of our red troopers, "I'll try to hit it so you can see what I'm talking about, okay?"

So they can seriously be killed instantly? You learn something every day... Like how painful it is to fall on your ass after taking a leap of faith. Ow.

In seconds, Gin began chucking the Pikmin right at a group of the bulburbs. The yips from the freaks echoed all throughout the cave as the small Spartans attacked.

Right when I had begun to think that Gin's 'demonstration' would be a bust, the next Pikmin that was thrown landed right on top of one of the white bulburbs. What happened afterwards was a screech from the thing as the force from the impact completely flattened it for a second. Afterwards, it fell to the ground, dead as my biology professor's enthusiasm for teaching... That was flat out gruesome.

Once the remaining Pikmin finished off the group of bulburbs, They returned, proud of their accomplishment. "Alright, you know what to do?" Gin asked, which I responded with a thumbs up. Seems easy enough. Just gotta land the Pikmin right on top of them.

"Okay. I'm gonna let you take the lead."

With that, Gin backed away, motioning towards the rest of the cave. I was honestly excited. She really trusted me enough to let me fight things technically on my own? Well, knowing her, she was going to make sure nothing bad happens to me while I led the way.

Walking down the path, which had turned to dirt underneath us, we had come across... A huge globe. Upon getting closer, the ship buzzed into my helmet.

"It's inconceivable that such an immense object has been buried here for so long. The design on the outer shell resembles the surface of the planet as seen from space!" it remarked... Which really made me wonder if it had seen a globe before. I was actually about to ask before being interrupted by the hunk of metal, "Perhaps it can be used as something other than salvage... But how will we ever lift it? I fear that even one hundred red Pikmin would be unable to lift it!"

Wait, what?

"Wait, what?"

The only response I got was a little tug on my arm from Gin. "Don't worry. Keep on going. We'll be able to get it out," she assured. Okay, now I was curious. Following her instructions, I trudged on with my group following close behind. We soon came across another white bulburb... But fortunately, I had a better aim than Gin. Remembering where it was that I needed to throw, I gripped ahold of a Pikmin tightly and... Well, it wasn't like I would land it the first time.

A few more throws later and one Pikmin made their impact on top of the bulburb. Not bad! Maybe I'll get better at this.

The closer we hiked down farther, the more vegetation was appearing. It was nice to see some prettier plants for once, really. The dreary coldness of the surface was really drab, but down in the cave was much more comfortable. Eventually, we all had come across a large group of the freaks of nature.

"I forgot how many there are," I heard Gin mumble, then turn towards me, "Let's team up against these things!"

"Sure!"

And so, red rain fell upon the group, managing to one-shot one of them. As quickly as it began, it ended... But our artillery returned one Pikmin short.

So, this is how easy it could be to lose Pikmin? If that's the case, then we're gonna need to up our game. Fortunately, it wasn't Chili, who has been right next to me the whole time. The little guy was too precious to risk losing.

Entering the next room that had been guarded by the bulburbs, Gin and I were met with an extremely beautiful sight.

Right at the bottom of the cave, a lush area filled with greenery. And in the center basking in the light from above? Giant purple flowers.

Yeah, I could definitely take a nap here.

"Astounding! A flower blooms in a cave deep beneath the snowy landscape. Clearly it is warmer down here than above. Look. The Pikmin are restless..."

With the ship's observation, the red Pikmin were indeed a bit antsy. They were looking intently at Gin and I, seemingly eager for something...

"They look as if they yearn to be tossed in the flower..."

After the ship noted that, I turned to Gin, a very perplexed look probably on my face. My expression was enough to make her laugh as she began to toss a few Pikmin in. The resulting squeaks that followed were pretty unnerving, but as soon as a couple were thrown in, the flower snapped shut, spat out some seeds, then withered away. What remained were five new Pikmin sprouts, waiting to be plucked.

"I'll let you pull out the first one," was all that Gin said.

Nervously, I approached one of the sprouts and grabbed hold of the stalk.

What was going to happen? Only one way to find out.

It took a bit more effort than the other Pikmin sprouts, but I eventually pulled it from the ground. Looking behind me, a... Purple colored Pikmin was present instead of a red one. The ship's enthusiasm sounded as the Pikmin took in its surroundings once more. "Amazing! A purple Pikmin! It has hair... And is quite stocky. It seems very heavy and very strong."

Yeah, I had gathered the 'heavy' part after pulling it out. But what did it mean by 'very strong'? The ship kept on, "This kind of Pikmin was not mentioned in your report, Olimar. It must be an entirely new type! Transforming Pikmin by tossing them into flowers? Intriguing... Perhaps there are others..?"

Huh. That's a thought. Looking at Gin, she was finishing with pulling up the last of the purple Pikmin.

So, we had ten purple Pikmin and I think fifty nine red ones... Would it really be enough for carrying the huge globe? Gin was already on her way to it by the time I had finished that thought. Once I had caught up to her, she was already directing the Pikmin onto the large globe. The ship had said that it was impossible for even one hundred red Pikmin, so... Maybe this is where the 'stronger' part comes in.

After a bit of struggle, the Pikmin lifted it off the ground and began to march on to the ship's research pod.

"So... This is what it meant by stronger?" I asked Gin, who nodded before replying, "Yeah. They have the strength of ten Pikmin. But they're really slow and heavy as the downside."

At the mention of 'strength of ten Pikmin', a smug grin spread across my face. "In other words... They have the strength of ten men?"

As soon as she knew where I was headed with this, Gin groaned.

"Tori, please no."

"He asked for me to give him the strength of ten men..."

"Tori—,"

"Did he get what he wanted? Of course! He made off with a lovely mahogany cheese board."

As I quoted the scene some more at Gin's expense (I hadn't seen the movie in a while, so I might have gotten a few words wrong), the Pikmin eventually reached the pod and the globe was retrieved.

I knew that because as soon as it was sucked up, the ship began to announce the amount.

"This treasure is worth 200 Pokos! I shall call it... The Spherical Atlas!"

Oh. So it did have a vague idea of what a globe was. Kind of.

"There is a device resembling a microchip embedded inside this sphere. Retrieving data..."

There was a silence afterwards, seemingly because of the data being deciphered. After a few more seconds, the ship spoke once again, "Error. I could only decode a portion of the data, but I did retrieve new geographical charts. I shall input this data into my planetary database and name it the Sphere Chart. Now that we have this new data, you should be able to explore the decoded territory tomorrow."

So, we had a new area to add to our places to look for 'treasure' to get out of corporate shit. Huzzah. But I absolutely hated cold weather, so maybe this new place would be a little warmer. Heading over to the ship's pod, I whistled the Pikmin to me and returned to Gin.

"So... Where to now?" I asked, which resulted in Gin going back to the room where we had gotten the sumo Pikmin. Of course, I followed close behind her.

Walking towards the back of it, a distinct sound of what had to be a geyser was present. The ship pretty much said exactly what was on my mind.

"Astounding! Water is shooting out of this geyser with incredible force! Sensors indicate that it has enough power to launch you into the air! Approach it and give it a try!"

Oh, way ahead of you, my metal friend. This looks fun as HELL!

Before Gin could say anything about it, I jumped right on into the water, which blasted me right into the sky. I assumed that Gin had hesitated to join in, but after hearing the sounds of the Pikmin followed, she must have worked up the courage.

And I was glad for that. Because GOD DAMN, THIS WAS FUN!

— —

GOD DAMN, THIS WAS HORRIFYING!

As I felt myself shoot into the air with the army of Pikmin, Tori was laughing like crazy. WHY WAS SHE LAUGHING?! Soon, the warmth of the cave disappeared and the cold air of the Valley of Repose replaced it as we all shot through the sky. Finally, we all landed right at our base... And I once again felt the total pain that accompanied the impact onto the ground.

As Tori and I got up from the ground, we were notified that the ship wanted to speak with us. Again.

"You have successfully returned to the planet's surface! Excellent decision making, gentlemen!"

Being called a gentleman was definitely... New. It felt a little weird, actually.

"We must celebrate your first successful spelunking expedition! You've gathered a large amount of data that needs more in-depth analysis."

... Oh. Oh right. I'm the one that has to make journal entries. Fuck.

"I shall send a report to the President tonight detailing your progress. Olimar and Louie, yesterday I had told you that I would not be allowing another early day, but since you will explore a new area tomorrow, today's work is done!"

"But, shouldn't we be hurrying?" I heard Tori ask, to which the ship replied, "You may not realize it, but you are exhausted! You should take a much-needed rest, as you have all the time you need to collect treasure! Haste makes waste, so take it slow and steady."

Now that the ship mentioned it, I really did feel a bit exhausted... And sore from the falling. So, without another word, I whistled the Pikmin into their Onion—well, the purple ones were directed to the hull for their own Onion. This made Tori a bit confused until she saw that there weren't any purple Onions in sight. After an understanding "Oooh," from her, we made our way back onto the ship, a big day finally behind us.

—

Gin's Treasure Logs

Spherical Atlas:

In the first cave found, dubbed the Emergence Cave, our team came across this large map of the Pikmin planet. At first, the task of carrying it was next to impossible until discovering a very strong Pikmin: Purple Pikmin. With their help, we managed to carry this all the way back!

Citrus Lump:

I never thought that I would ever see a fruit this big in my entire life. Seriously, this is almost James and the Giant Peach kind of big. I doubt anyone will know what I'm talking about, but I'm still processing this...

Quenching Emblem:

As I write this while inspecting the design more carefully, I feel a sense of longing for a certain drink I haven't had in a long time... And I think of rabbits. Don't ask because I don't know why. I'm just going to leave this here and just get some juice or something.

Debt recovered: 930/10,000


	5. Second Night

Well, it was time to check the mail. Going to my own monitor in the com room, I opened up the email application and anticipated one from the President... Well, there were two actually. One was, indeed, from the President, but this other one seemed different. I decided to read the one from the President first.

'Baby steps first, Olimar! Plan well, and don't worry about me. Our debt is with Happy Hocotate Savings & Loan, after all. Besides, there's nothing left to repossess, so HA!'

Oh, Mr. President. How wrong you are. But, ignorance is bliss. Since the ship was going to send today's report to him, I decided to let that be my response back. Now for the other one...

As soon as I opened the second email, things that I had forgotten about Olimar came back to me.

'My dearest dear... How are you? Your boss gave me this space-email account and told me about your business trip. Just remember—you have a family to think about!'

"... Oh _shit_."

"What's up, Gin?" I heard Tori call from the dining kitchen. She was probably already coming to get me for dinner... Might as well tell her indirectly, "Um... What would you do if you got a letter from your loving wife that's worried about you?"

It was silent for a long ten seconds before her hysterical laughter filled the entire ship. A few moments after, Tori came up to the com room, still laughing. "Lemme read it! Lemme read it!"

"Tori, it's awkward enough that I suddenly have a WIFE now, but having someone else read about it is making me die inside!"

Despite my pleas, Tori began to read through the message. As she read, her smile grew as she began to laugh once more. "You're a DAD?! Holy hell! And you have a wife too! You're living the dream right there, bud!"

Okay, that's it.

"Don't think you're off the hook here! Louie's a total momma's boy! In fact, YOU might get a few from HIS _MOM_!" I snapped.

Tori's laughter ceased abruptly. Slowly looking at me right in the eye, she could only say, "... You serious?"

"Dead serious."

As she processed this information, she came to a deduction that was pretty much on the mark, "You're telling me the guy I am RIGHT NOW is one of those guys that's single and still lives with their mom?"

I returned with a shrug, "Probably. I don't know anything about Louie having a girlfriend and he does indeed live with his mom."

The com room was silent, with only the sound of monitors running in the background, before a very distinct "FUCK!" erupted from Tori. This, of course, was enough for the roles to be switched, with her being angry at my cackling instead of the other way around.

"Shut up! This is WAY worse than having a wife and kids! I have to figure out what to say to this guy's mom! AND I have to deal with the fact that the guy I'm stuck as is gonna be the next 40 Year Old Virgin!"

After my own laughing fit (which lasted for a bit longer than it should have thanks to the '40 Year Old Virgin' bit), I finally calmed down and regained my composure. It felt good to laugh like that. Especially in this situation. Seeing that Tori was a bit grouchy from the whole thing, I decided to propose something that she might be up for.

"Sorry, I just really needed that. But, how about this. You can read the letters I get from my... Wife?... If I can read the ones from your, uh, current mom. We can get equal humiliation and just have fun. Maybe we can make fun of ourselves even," I suggested.

This got Tori noticeably interested. She thought about it for a minute, then grinned. "Alright, sure! I mean, it's better to have equal time making fun of each other and ourselves. And it's more fun, yeah?" she said with a nod, "Now that that's all settled, dinner's ready, so—"

"Be sure to show me your letter first when we start this. You already saw mine, so it would only be fair."

Tori just let out a sigh. "Fiiiiine. I promise I will. Wrap up whatever it is that you need done up here and come down."

With that, she left downstairs. Okay. Now that I was alone...

'Work would never be more on my mind than you all. I might be far away, but I'm always thinking of all of you. Tell the kids to be good while I'm gone!'

They might not be my actual family, but they still are technically mine right now. I might as well not make them worry. After I sent my message, written completely from the training I had obtained from being forced to watch many rom coms from my mom, I left to join Tori in the dining kitchen.


	6. Third Day

Today, Tori managed to get ready much faster than yesterday. Apparently, not being able to cook breakfast really got to her. And I know that because she was going into more detail than before about her cooking.

"I've made for us some nice, fluffy pancakes, perfectly golden brown and with a flavorful mixed berry syrup to give it a nice sweet but tart compliment! These are gonna be the best pancakes you've ever had and quite possibly the best I've made in a long time!" she announced happily as she walked from the kitchen part of the room to the dining part, holding the stack of pancakes and berry syrup.

... Honestly, I get the feeling that the only reason she describes her cooking so vividly is to just make people hungry, thus making it taste better. If she seriously has been doing it for that sole purpose all along, then she's a goddamn genius, because it works way too well. As she set the pancakes and syrup on the table, she gave me an expectant look, awaiting me to taste what she had managed to make.

Well, she _is_ studying to be a chef. She'll need all the constructive criticism she needs.

With her eyes not leaving me, I took one off of the plate, poured some of the berry syrup onto it, then tasted (all slowly, just to add to the tension). "... Well? How do you like it?" she asked, actually a little bit nervously. I made sure to give her a cold stare, which made her visibly heat up.

"Was-was there something wrong with it?!" she stammered, trying to read my face for any signs of what could be wrong.

"It..."

"Yeah?"

"It's..."

"WHAT WAS WRONG?!"

"It's perfect. Thanks," I finally said, then gave her a smug grin. After that was said, she was silent, then just groaned.

"God dammit, Gin. Why do you pull that when I make something extra special?"

"Because it's hilarious. And it gives you a taste of your own medicine."

Tori was about to retort, then stopped. After thinking about it, she just shrugged, "Yeah, I guess it's only fair you have something to tease me about when I have plenty of stuff to tease you with."

After we both had our (heavenly) pancakes, we were ready to go to the next area in the game. A much warmer area, thankfully. With our space helmets secured, we climbed into our cockpits.

~—~

The Awakening Wood.

My absolute favorite area in the game. Not sure why. Maybe because it had the cave where I beat the boss with one yellow Pikmin? Or maybe because it had my favorite upgrade? Who knows. All I knew is that I was excited for the arrival.

With my sub-par piloting skills, I managed to avoid quite a few branches this time. More than the first time I had attempted to pilot... But I eventually hit one.

Just like the other day, I had made impact with another branch. It was bound to happen, but I had to make sure that Tori didn't fall out again! Before I could look back behind me to see if she was alright, I found myself flying through the air.

You know that sometimes when something so terrifying happens, you lose the ability to scream? That's what was happening right now.

Tori had at least fallen into some snow. But me? I had nothing. No possible form of cushioning.

Shutting my eyes, I braced myself for the impact, trembling as I felt the air against me. This wasn't how I wanted to go... I at least wanted to die as myself rather than like this. Unfortunately, that wouldn't happen. I was going to die as someone I'm not—

SPLASH!

Through my (very poor quality) suit, I could feel a slight... Coolness? I was also floating for some reason. Was this what death felt like? Slowly opening my eyes, I could see light peeking out of the leaves of the trees.

So... I'm not dead? Glancing around, I now confirmed that I was floating on my back in a small pool of water. Did I really just avoid death? As much as I wanted to celebrate, I couldn't work up any energy to drag myself out. The entire panic of almost dying really drained me. I was honestly still in shock. Plus, floating on my back in a pool of water as sun slightly shown through the leaves onto my face was really relaxing... No, I shouldn't be tempted by this! I needed to get back to Tori, even if I'm dazed!

It was at that moment that I registered what was right near the pool of water.

... Yeah, I should just stay here if I wanted to live.

So, with the overall trauma immobilizing me, I closed my eyes to calm myself. Hearing the leaves rustling with every small breeze along with the sensation of the warm sun on my face was definitely soothing my frazzled emotions.

I had confidence in Tori. She was strong and I knew that she would be able to find me. I didn't just think that.

I _knew_ that.

— —

To say that I was freaking out would be a serious understatement. Ooooh no. I was freaking the FUCK out. I had no idea where the hell Gin was and I know JACK SHIT about this stuff! I think the ship said something about her terrible piloting and how she was unresponsive? I wasn't really paying attention, but what I DID pay attention to was the part that involved 'find Olimar quickly'. Gin's name might not be Olimar, but she's him at the moment.

"Just so you know, the purple Pikmin are inside of my hull. I believe that you will need all the help you can get in order to safely find Olimar. Go to the hologram and select how many you would like to take out," the ship explained, which I returned with a nod. Because the ship had mentioned it, I went up to the touch screen hologram floating above the ground and hesitantly tapped on it.

What was pulled up was a small box with two purple arrows, the number '10' above the box. Curiously, I tapped the top button, which only ended up with an 'error' message. So, I tapped the bottom button... And the '10' changed to '09' as a single purple Pikmin popped out of the ship.

Looking at it, I pressed the top arrow, which resulted in the Pikmin being sucked up. Huh.

Withdrawing all ten of the purple Pikmin, I made my way over to the red Onion.

I was about to take out all of them, but stopped myself. If something happens to them, what would happen if the red Pikmin were all gone?

After much consideration, I decided to take out 49 reds, leaving ten inside in case of disaster. Hopefully this was a right move.

I could see an elephant bulburb sleeping in the distance, seemingly undisturbed. If Gin had landed near there, it might have woken up... Right? So, no use checking over there. Yep. Totally.

... Yeah, I probably wouldn't have a choice. But it doesn't hurt to prolong the inevitable.

To the left of the ship was a dead end. Even I could see that no matter how much I searched. Sure, there might be 'treasure' somewhere over there, but Gin comes first! I don't care if it extends our stay here. So, there was only one way to go before having to deal with the elephant thing. To the right of the ship. I really couldn't believe that I didn't just go that way in the first, as it led deeper into the forest, but I definitely wasn't going to ignore any possible areas she might be in. Even though I technically was ignoring one of them for now.

I was _going_ to find my best friend regardless.

Approaching the entryway to the right, the ground seemed to rumble beneath me... Then out popped OH GOD WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS?! THEY LOOK LIKE OVERSIZED STUBBY WORMS WITH EYES! I was now throwing Pikmin like crazy, hoping that they would kill these things. Well, they definitely did, but now I was in front of some dead... Whatever they were. Yeah, now I'm definitely getting away from there. No way in hell was I going to stick around for more of those things to pop up to take revenge.

After getting the outta there, I was now entering an enclosed area, complete with two small small plants—whoa wait, they just grew bigger before my eyes. Uuuuuuh... Okay then.

I would react later.

For now, I could see a dark colored wall; similar to the one from yesterday.

Alrighty, what did Gin do with the Pikmin to take down the wall?

... Oh, right! She did that directing thing. As the Pikmin stared at me with their tiny eyes, I pointed to the wall, whistling a little bit with the whistle... That's how you do it, right?

Nonetheless, the carrots got the hint, because they immediately went at the wall and began to pound on it.

I was doing it! I was controlling Pikmin! Now, I just had to wait until the little guys were finished!

~—~

... This was really taking a while. I don't think I remember the other one taking this long. I had around the same number working on it as Gin did, right? And that the purple ones were strong or something? Strength of ten Pikmin? Huh. Well, it had been about two hours now and the wall was just about down.

I had been able to survive the boredom of waiting by watching the berry plants sway in the wind as I just relaxed on the side of one of the stone walls around us. Apparently, my presence had gotten us a ghostlike fish thing to watch us as it floated through the air while making cute little noises. It seemed to be holding onto an egg or something. Did those have little floaty fish-thing babies inside?

With that thought fresh in my mind, I felt the ground shake slightly. At first, I thought the freaky worm things were back and ran into a clover patch, but upon further inspection, it was the wall that I had instructed the Pikmin to destroy. Thank god.

Whistling the Pikmin back to me, I was about to keep on going... Only to stop at the sight of a weird looking shell. It almost looked like a set of eyes, actually. Was it treasure or something? As soon as I moved closer, it sprung into action, shaking itself from the ground and revealing what it truly looked like.

A big ass beetle.

As it chittered closer, I began to throw Pikmin so fast that I think my throwing arm would be sore later, all the while yelling my battle cry:

"GET AWAY FROM ME GET AWAY FROM ME GET AWAY FROM ME—,"

Well, it didn't get away from me. Instead, it shook the Pikmin off and sucked itself inwards. I would have missed what happened next if I had blinked, because in a flash, a huge proboscis or whatever shot out from it, impaling one of the red Pikmin. The beetle then proceeded to SUCK UP THE PIKMIN LIKE IT WAS A FRUIT CHUNK CLOGGED IN A SMOOTHIE STRAW.

OH MY GOD.

Fortunately, my Pikmin recovered from being thrown off and immediately ran right back at it. These little guys... They were definitely brave. A whole lot braver than I was. Looking at the remaining Pikmin with me, then back at the gigantic bug, I took a deep breath, then threw more right at its face. As the little guys clung on, the bug was chittering in distress as it tried to shake the Pikmin off once more. Apparently, they were better at holding on this time. Try as the insect might, only a few were tossed to the side with a good number still pummeling it.

With a final pained chitter, it fell to its back, twitching a final few times.

... Wow.

So, do I just... Get the Pikmin to carry it back? I didn't really know how many it took to lift it, so I just sent out two Heracles Pikmin. It was enough, apparently, because the corpse slowly was dragged away to the Onion. Out of sight out of mind... I guess.

As soon as the two Purple Pikmin were gone, my mind put everything that had just happened together.

That thing could have killed me.

I could have ended up like that Pikmin.

I just survived.

Kneeling down, I began to hyperventilate as I now understood the situation. Gin still was lost—maybe dead—without any of the Pikmin to defend her from these things. I might be too late. Without her, what would I even do?!

After thinking that, I shook my head. No. She wasn't dead. I could feel it.

She was alive somewhere and I needed to suck it up and stop being weak. And that meant going to the elephant sized freak of nature and killing it. I couldn't avoid looking just because a monster was there.

Whistling around the area just in case I was missing some, I marched my way back to the landing site and towards the elephant-bulburb, ignoring the smaller one nearby.

Okay.

Time to go.

It is now go-time.

Tossing as many Pikmin as I could, the bulburb snapped awake after feeling the multicolored carrot people clinging onto it. Angrily, it shook the Pikmin off, then took a huge bite, devouring what had to be five Pikmin at once, one being one of the precious Heracles Pikmin...

Holy fuck.

What happened next surprised me. As I tossed Pikmin without caring what one I was gripping, a single purple was launched into the air, then landed on the monster's head with a loud 'THUMP'. The impact had apparently caused some sort of concussion, because the giant bulburb was completely dazed from it.

This allowed all the Pikmin to swarm it, quickly demolishing the thing. Afterwards, a large group of red Pikmin took hold of the dead bulburb and made their way to the red Onion.

Okay. Time to see if Gin was here. At first, I didn't really see anything that resembled the red light her antenna had... Until I looked into the water.

There she was.

Floating on her back and unmoving.

Oh my god...

"GIN!" I screamed, dashing to the water's edge. Hold on, could this suit work like scuba gear? Whatever, I'm going in there! Splashing into the water, I clumsily made my way to her side. Grabbing her by the shoulders, I began to push her to shore, my mind racing with worst case scenarios.

Should I give CPR?! Wait—that's just stupid. But, what should I do?! Was she DEAD?! Oh god oh god oh—

"Mngh..."

I blinked, then slowly looked down at Gin, who was half awake. "Tori..?" she asked sleepily, which was simply returned with a smack to her helmet, courtesy of my palm, then jabbed a finger in her chest. "I thought you were DEAD! I got chased around by worm things, waited two and a half hours for a wall to come down, almost got impaled by a big ass beetle, and had to give an elephant sized freak of nature a concussion before it ate all of our carrot people! And then you just float around in a pool of water UNMOVING?! FUCK YOU!" I snapped.

I had apparently stunned Gin, because she was giving me a long stare. "You mean... You did all that?"

"Do I have to repeat myself?!"

"Tori... That's amazing!" she exclaimed, "I knew you'd be able to save me, but I didn't imagine that you'd be able to accomplish all that!"

I had accomplished something? Well, I guess the wall was an accomplishment, but other than that... Well, now that I thought about it, all of this was completely badass.

Getting off of the ground and dusting herself off, she pointed up to something on a ledge near us. "How about we take this back before the day is over?"

Once I took a look for myself, I was now staring at a massive strawberry. Holy shit. Eating that thing would make me sick of strawberries for the rest of my life.

"Alright. I'll throw some Pikmin up there if you can take care of the bulburb over there."

"They're actually called bulbORBS, but whatever. I'm on it!" Gin replied, then went to the Onion to get the idle Pikmin under it (I could see her looking around at the sprouts that had popped up and nod with a smile, so I guess she was happy that I remembered to bring some of the corpses back). Now armed with some Pikmin, she walked over to the bulburb—or 'bulborb'—then began to throw.

All of them had missed the one-shot sweet spot, but there were enough to overwhelm the smaller bulborb. Now, the way was clear for the strawberry to get transported. Tossing a few purples and reds up there, the Pikmin eventually got a good grip on the strawberry and hefted it off to the ship. Sure, it took a little bit, but the berry eventually got to the ship. Now, I was pretty curious as to what the ship was going to call this.

"This treasure is worth 170 Pokos! I shall name it the Sunseed Berry!"

That was... Actually pretty fitting. I liked it. Before I could return to Gin, the ship made another announcement.

"10% of debt has been recovered! Very good work, gentlemen!"

Whoa. Did I just hear that right? If we keep it going like this, then we'll be out of here in no time!

Turning to Gin, she gave me a thumbs up before going to the Pikmin that were awaiting to be pulled up before the day was over. So naturally, I went to help. After all, that's what friends do.

... I need someone to punch me for saying something so sappy. Damn.

—

Gin's Treasure Logs

Sunseed Berry:

I loved these types of fruits before I ended up here. Now witnessing a massive version of one? This is amazing! So now, I'll take it upon myself to see if every food item we find is poisonous or not. For the good of everyone.

Debt recovered: 1,100/10,000


	7. Third Night

After having what Tori described as 'amazingly creamy carrot soup, made fresh from the Pikpik Carrots you had introduced to me with a wondrous mix of assorted vegetables that perfectly ties all of the rich flavors together', it was time to check the mail.

However, before I could go up to the com room, I could hear Tori mumbling under her breath as she searched through the kitchen. "Looks like I'm running out of ingredients..."

Now that I recalled, the ship apparently didn't have a diverse amount of provisions when it came to cooking food. It seems as though that's starting to come into play now... Poor Tori. But knowing her, she'll find a way to cook her meals... Well, I had a vague idea of what she might do, but I really hope it didn't come to that.

Approaching the monitor, I booted it up only to see that Tori had mail addressed to her. "Hey, Tori! You got mail!" I called to her, curious as to what it said. In response, Tori poked her head out of the entryway to the room, then went to the computer. "Alrighty, let's see what it says!" she replied happily, eager to see who it was from.

Clicking on the email, we could see that it was from the President.

'Louie: It's been three months since you joined our company and I'm sure you love it—' ("I'm sure I speak for both me AND Louie when I say that I really hope he's joking," Tori stated flatly.) '—I expect big things from you, Louie. Far bigger things than I expect from Olimar!'

After that letter, Tori just looked to me with a smug look on her face. She didn't have to say anything for me to know what she was going to say. "Shut up, you still don't know what to even do."

"Not yet."

"Let's just read my letter," I sighed, then pulled up the unread email. Well, it wasn't from the President. Instead, it was from someone who made Tori's shit-eating grin fade and be replaced with a blank stare towards me.

'Papa! No fair! No fair! You snuck off and went on an expedition without me! You have to promise to absolutely, positively take me next time! Say it! Say you PROOOOOMISE!'

It was from my 'son'. "... Oh. Well. Okay then... Uh..." Tori trailed off, unsure of what to even say about this. It seemed as if she had wanted to tease me about it, but after seeing a letter from one of my 'kids', she was now taking into context just how awkward it was for me. Even she knew that some things shouldn't be teased about. I just slowly turned to her, uneasiness plastered all over my face.

"Wh... What should I say?" I stammered, which made Tori shrug, "I don't know, man! Do I look like a dad?!"

Looking back to the monitor, I took a few deep breaths before typing.

'Don't you worry, kiddo! Papa's definitely going to take you on an adventure. I promise! I'll be sure to bring you back a souvenir to show off to everyone for a science project!'

"What do you think?" I asked Tori as she read through my response. As soon as she finished, she gave me a thumbs up, "That's good. But, how do you know that there's a science fair or something?"

"I remember something about a treasure being a souvenir for his son as a science project," I explained as I sent the letter.

Okay. That was more stressful than it should have been. Without another word, Tori and I both left to our respective bunks for bed.

Once I got myself as comfortable as I could, I thought back on today's events. Tori really was a natural at this, despite her not knowing a thing. As proud of her as I was, I was also disappointed in myself. I sat there like a wuss while I had Tori search for me.

I was a grade-A coward. And I don't think that would be changing anytime soon. Hugging my pillow, I slowly drifted off after a mental beat down for today's actions.


	8. Fourth Day

Gin was pretty silent throughout the morning when we were getting ready to go. When I asked if everything was alright, she assured me that nothing was wrong... But I'm not stupid. Something was definitely bothering her. Unfortunately, I couldn't try to get it out of her, because we needed to get going back to the place where we were before. Since yesterday wasn't exactly productive, today was the day that we would get things done rather than not.

After landing and being shot out of our cockpits, it was time to get going. Gin made her way over to the red Onion while I approached the hologram. Once the screen had materialized, I thought about how many purple Pikmin would be good for today... Five would be enough, right? Glancing over to Gin, I could see that she had already taken out a decently sized army of... How many? "Hey, Gin? How many didja take out?" I asked her, which caused her to jump a little bit. Taking a look at her group, she replied, "Um... Sixty-five." "And is Chili there?"

Gin just gave me a stare as a single red Pikmin separated from her crowd and made a cute little squeak. By the looks of it, Gin was surprised that Chili even remembered that he had a name. After snapping out of it, she cleared her throat, "How many are you taking out over there?"

"Just five. So, that'll put us at seventy... Think that's good for today?"

"Yeah."

With that exchange, we grouped up with our Pikmin and headed to the wall I had taken down yesterday... However, the berry plant things seemed to have shrunk in the time I was gone. Did these things grow in the sunlight and shrink in the nighttime? Weird. Looking to me, then to the plants, Gin asked, "Did you harvest any of the berries yesterday?"

"No, I spent the day looking for you," I replied, which seemed to make Gin flush slightly in embarrassment. "Y-Yeah... Well, before anything else, we should get the berries."

Hm. Yeah, that seemed like a good idea. We were running out of ingredients, so gathering up some gigantic berries to prepare for some nice tarts would definitely be nice. Or maybe to make them into juice, given how big they are. Juicing them would lead to more possibilities for recipes and—

"Tori, they aren't edible," Gin sighed as the plants had a huge growth spurt. I just looked to her, then gave her a sly grin, "You doubt my skills?"

"No, they're really not made to be cooked or anything—"

"I'm not gonna cook 'em. I'll use the juice to make a nice beverage to go with tonight's dinner!"

"That's accurate to what they're used for, but I really don't think it's a good idea to drink them."

I only needed to hear that my plan was similar to their purpose. Once the berry plants went through another major growth spurt, I was pretty sure that they'd get their berries soon. Well, probably. I wasn't sure how much it took for them to be berry-ready because I didn't arrive in the area until later to bring down the wall... It was at this moment that Gin approached the left side of where the wall used to be, which caused the floating fish thing from yesterday to appear with a happy little noise. Its sudden appearance caused Gin to jump, but she recovered and watched as it floated along.

"Oh yeah! That little guy kept me company while I waited for the wall to come down. It floated around like that and disappeared for a few seconds after a while and kept appearing and disappearing like that," I explained, which was returned with a nod from my partner. "Yep. Those are called honeywisps. The egg-things they carry around have stuff that help Pikmin," Gin replied as she watched it float about. Honeywisps, huh? That's a pretty cute name. Fitting for something like that. As the honeywisp disappeared after a while of floating, Gin looked right at me. "You _do_ know that we're going to have to knock its egg down if we want our Pikmin to get powered up..."

I returned with a concerned look. "Wait, we aren't going to kill it... Right?" I asked Gin, who hummed to herself as she seemed to be thinking of a response. "Well, um... We aren't exactly killing it. At least, I don't think so... _Does_ knocking its egg down kill it..? I think it does, but... Hm..."

Well, that didn't give me a clear answer. Looking back up to the honeywisp, I could tell it had no idea just what we were considering. That cute face... That cute, innocent face... With a sigh, I looked over to Gin, who was still trying to remember if knocking its cargo down kills it, "What exactly happens to make the Pikmin powered up?"

"They get a permanent boost to everything... Well, unless the flower gets blown off."

I didn't have a damn clue what she meant by 'flower', but having enhanced everything would really help with getting out of here. With that thought, I turned to the army of Pikmin, "Alright, let's knock the egg down. After all, Chili would look good with a flower if that's what they get."

At the mention of his name, Chili ran up to me happily only to trip onto his face as soon as he was in front of me. Once he got up from the ground, he made a happy noise, seemingly assuring me that he was okay. This made the thought of killing the honeywisp more tolerable, because I know that I would be helping my little carrot buddy out. And even though the honeywisp was cute and relatively beautiful, 'bros before hoes' was one of the mottos I went by. Gripping Chili's stalk, I took a glance at Gin, who had grabbed ahold of a purple Pikmin. Looking back to me, she gave me a nod, "Ready, Tori?"

"Yep!"

Chucking Chili right at the honeywisp, I was surprised that I had actually landed the hit on it. With a yelp, it dropped the egg and faded away, leaving us with the contents. I had expected the egg have a yolk or something in it, but once the egg shattered... "OH MY FUCKING GOD WHAT THE ARE THESE THINGS?!" I screamed as a HUGE clusterfuck of bugs popped out, making these freaky gnawing noises as they skittered around. The Pikmin were apparently thinking the exact same thing I was, because they were scattering everywhere, nattering in their little language about how GODDAMN FREAKY THESE THINGS WERE. I could hear Gin trying to whistle to the Pikmin in order to keep them together as she threw both the purple one she was carrying and a red one that managed to stay still long enough to be thrown. Yet despite her efforts, nobody could keep it together.

The Pikmin she had thrown managed to kill two of them, but that was the only accomplishment due to the fact that the rest of our squad was busy flipping shit to really get it together. The rest of the bugs finally burrowed into the ground, leaving all of us with two corpses and some juice stuff that came from them.

It was a while before I could finally say anything. "What the ever-loving FUCK?! WERE THOSE THINGS _BABY HONEYWISPS?!_ " I asked Gin frantically, who was also coming out of her own daze. Staring at me wide-eyed, she answered, "U-um... Those were mites... I think? Pikmin hate how they smell and... Uh... That."

"THAT DOESN'T ANSWER IF THEY WERE BABY HONEYWISPS OR NOT!"

"I DON'T KNOW MAN, I'M NOT A TOTAL ENCYCLOPEDIA FOR THIS SHIT! ALL I KNOW IS THAT A BUNCH OF GIANT PARASITIC LOOKING BUGS POPPED OUT OF AN EGG AND JUST CRAWLED EVERYWHERE WHILE MAKING CREEPY ASS NOISES!"

After taking a few deep breaths, Gin seemed to try to regain her composure as she took a look at the yellow juice that had been knocked out of the dead mites. "That's what'll power up the Pikmin," she told me, then began to gather the scattered Pikmin with her whistle. After all of them were accounted for, Gin directed the army over to the droplets while I watched to see just what was going to happen. As soon as the Pikmin made contact with the juice, they surrounded the droplets and began to slurp it up, leaving nothing behind... In other words, our Pikmin just drank up bug fluid.

... Ew.

Once they were done, the leaves at the end of their stalks began to shake until the little soldiers sprang into the air with a twirl, flowers now in the place of where the leaves were. Chili, now with a distinct white flower on top of his stalk, ran up to me, squeaking happily as he showed me his cute new flower. It was at that moment that I heard the familiar buzzing from the ship. "The Pikmin that drank the yellow nectar instantly matured into flower Pikmin. It appears to have enhanced motor skills. What a wondrous nectar!" it announced as Chili took up one of the mite corpses and began to quickly carry it away to his Onion, followed by another red flower Pikmin.

"How intriguing... Like plants, Pikmin mature from leaf, to bud, to flower. Captain Olimar! You must share the information you have with your subordinate, Louie!" the ship scolded Gin, who in return flushed pink and shifted uncomfortably. I had to give it to the ship there. While Gin was technically teaching me, she had a problem with being too vague about details. Snapping herself out of her embarrassment, Gin made her way over to the Onion to pluck out the Pikmin that were going to be made. Naturally, I followed her with the mix of our flower Pikmin and few remaining leaf Pikmin that didn't get to the juice quickly enough.

Once Gin had pulled four brand new Pikmin out of the ground and whistled Chili and the other Pikmin to her side, she approached me. "Okay, we have seventy-four Pikmin out here now. There's a cave we need to go to today, but harvesting the berries is also important. I'd go ahead and get as many berries as we can before going into the cave, but what do you want to do?" she asked, which made me think. Going into a new cave right away would be fun and would help with getting out of here faster. But Gin had said that the berries were important in some way. If that's the case, then maybe waiting a little bit before going into a cave would work better for the long run. Finally, I just shrugged as I said my response, "You're the expert here, bud. Up to you."

With a smile, Gin nodded and proceeded back to the berry plants, which now had their berries appearing on them. After she swarmed some of the Pikmin onto one plant, I noticed the ground around the plants begin to shake... At first, I was expecting the stubby worms from yesterday to pop up again... But what appeared instead were two large, yellow grub things. As soon as they surfaced, they began to inch their way to the berry plants themselves with every movement from them resulting in a loud rubbery sound.

Okay, now things were starting to get weirder than usual.

"Gin, what are those things?" I asked as she turned to face the freaky grub-things. Once she got a good look at them, she began to throw Pikmin at like crazy. I... Honestly felt kind of sorry for the things as the Pikmin began their attack. "Those are whiskerpillars... Well, I think that's what they're called. If we don't kill them before they get to the berries, then they'll start to eat them and leave us without any to harvest," she explained while one of the 'whiskerpillars' squirmed around on the ground as the Pikmin successfully killed it. Afterwards, it was taken off to the red Onion... But it still seemed to squirm violently while making the same rubbery sounds as the Pikmin carried it off. I just looked to Gin, wide eyed, "Is that thing still alive or some shit?!"

"I really have no idea, but that's what happens when they get carried. They make that... Really weird sound all the way to the Onion," she replied, watching as the second whiskerpillar was taken down and inevitably carried off in the same fashion as the first one. Yep, I'm definitely going to avoid taking those things back to Onions after killing them. They're too weird sounding for me to listen to.

Plop!

Already, one of the red berries was knocked down and in the process of being taken to the ship by one of the Pikmin left over from fighting the whiskerpillars. Now that I had a better look at it, it really did look like something I could experiment with in my cooking. Yeah, maybe I'll set one aside... They might be poisonous though.

I'm sure we'd be fine if a grub-thing is fine with eating them... Right? Nonetheless, it'll be a learning experience!

After all berries were successfully knocked down, the ship had gotten the first one. What resulted was a buzz in our helmets as it reported, "Astounding! This red berry contains an ultra-spicy essence. It does not appear to have any monetary value, but I shall research potential uses for it. Bring me another specimen."

Ultra-spicy, huh? I could easily come up with something to cook with it, so I'm way ahead of the ship when it comes to finding uses for these. However, I could see Gin giving me a funny look as I thought about the possibilities. She just crossed her arms as she tried to stand tall. "I love spicy food, don't get me wrong, but the berries aren't for cooking with," she told me sternly, which I returned with lightly jabbing my index finger into her chest.

"Admit it, you're curious about just how spicy these things are!" I accused, "If you let me experiment with one of these, we'll both see what the ship means when it says 'ultra-spicy'."

Gin opened her mouth to retort, then stopped herself and began to think. After a few seconds of silent mental debating on her end, she sighed, "Fine. If you can bring a berry _by yourself_ by the end of the day, then it's yours. The berries burst after a while, so you'll have to do it when it's almost the end of the day."

I could just tell that Gin was regretting this development. But hey, I would take a berry even if she said otherwise. We were almost to the point of having to eat those instant noodles that were packed in the kitchen. I don't doubt that they tasted good, but I could imagine us getting sick of them after a while. And having only those to eat would make our time here even worse.

It wasn't long before the ship buzzed in my helmet once again, addressing Gin specifically, "Captain Olimar, my research on the red berries you discovered has yielded a powerful potion!"

As that was said, the ship's support pod flew down to the both of us and dropped a small spray containing a bright red liquid from the bottom of its pod to the ground in front of us. "Behold the ultra-spicy spray! Although untested, I believe it will have spectacular results. Simply spray it on all of your Pikmin for it to take effect," the ship explained as Gin retrieved the small bottle, "When necessary, I can make one spray from ten berries. Press and hold the communications button to contact me if you wish to confirm your berry count."

After putting up the spray in the pack on her suit, Gin turned to me. "Okay... Let's head over to the cave. Our team should be good enough for it, but are you ready?" she asked, which I responded with a thumbs up. With a smile, she returned my gesture and headed to the front of the ship to whistle the stationary Pikmin to the group. "Oh, Tori? Can you take care of the Pikmin in the ground and get the ones by the Onion together?"

"Already on it!"

Approaching the red Onion, I could make out four sprouts that were awaiting to be plucked. So, the grubs made two Pikmin like the freaky bugs apparently did? Nice. Once I had pulled up the Pikmin from underneath the Onion as well as call the ones standing by there, our army now was at seventy-eight. Yep, we were ready for whatever was in the cave.

Bringing my squad over to Gin to group up with the rest of the Pikmin, we all headed past the berry plants and onward to wherever the cave was.

— —

As we went on, I couldn't shake the fact that I was forgetting something... We had gotten the spicy spray, made some of our Pikmin flowers... But for some reason, I felt as if I had forgotten about something that I should be on edge about. Tori could see my unease and decided to ask about it, "Hey, man. You okay? You seem a bit anxious or something."

"I just feel like I forgot something that I should really be remembering right about now," I admitted, which got me a firm pat on the back as Tori reassured me, "It can't be too bad if you forgot about it. Might not be as important as you think, yeah?"

"Yeah, maybe. But it's really eating at me..."

Continuing down, I looked up to the paper bag blocking the right path. Tori was about to throw our purple Pikmin onto the bag when I stopped her. "We don't have enough right now. The cave is on the left," I explained, then motioned over to the left path. Nodding in confirmation, she set the Pikmin down and followed me past the three gigantic yellow daisies...

Wait.

Hold on...

There was something about these flowers that—

Before I could react, Tori and I were forcefully knocked forward as we were ambushed by the so-called 'flower'. As the two of us got up from the ground, we turned to see a giant plant-monster making its way to the Pikmin that were now recovering. "WHAT IN FUCK'S NAME IS THAT?!" Tori demanded as I was failing to find my words to answer her question. Instead, I could only stare in horror as the monster chomped down and proceeded to eat four or five Pikmin at once. The sounds of the Pikmin crying out as they were eaten seemed to snap me out of my daze, because I began to whistle all of the other Pikmin that were knocked aside in an attempt to get them away. This made the creature miss its second lunge and instead smack itself in the face. With a roar, it fell to the ground and begin flailing around as it tried to prop itself up again.

If this were in-game, I'd use this opportunity to attack with my Pikmin. But right now? Right now, I wasn't going to even attempt that. Instead, I managed to shout out a single, universal word that was enough for Tori to understand what to do.

"RUN!"

Now with our army, we retreated away from the monster before it could recover and make a more successful attack. After reaching the end of the path, we all took a hard left and hid ourselves from the plant-monster. I could feel it approaching with the tremors it made, but just when I thought that it would find us, the heavy steps seemed to stop for a few seconds, then fade as the creature seemed to give up the chase and return to its hiding spot. After checking to see if it was still there, Tori slowly turned to stare right at me. "G-Gin... What the absolute FUCK was that?!" she demanded to me once more. Fortunately, I had finally found my voice to properly reply. "It's-it's a creeping chrysanthemum... Th-they hide as flowers to a-ambush prey..." I answered, shivering as Tori took another look to see if the coast really was clear.

After confirming that it wasn't hanging by our hiding place, she plopped herself the ground with a deep sigh, "Holy shit... That had to be one of the scariest things I've ever seen... Gin, it didn't hurt you too bad, right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just really going to feel it later..."

It was silent as the two of us quietly recovered from the near-death experience. After a few minutes passed, Tori got up and dusted herself off. "Okay... Are you good to go to the cave or should we just wrap up early for today?" she asked. I shook my head, "No, I'm fine. Let's get to the cave. After all, we're already here. Might as well get some progress done treasure-wise."

With that, I whistled all the Pikmin around us—seventy-three in total now—and approached the hole that was adjacent to our hiding spot. What resulted was a buzz in my helmet.

"Kzzrt! Bzzzrt! Biological sensors are reacting violently. The readings are ominous. A beast of unknown power lurks in these depths. A large Pikmin group would be reassuring."

Yep, I'm sure seventy-three is more than enough for this voyage.

"My sound sensors are picking up hostile roars of many beasts. Expect dangerous encounters. Sensors are also showing extreme heat pockets. You may need flame-resistant Pikmin... But my records indicate no such data! Are my records incomplete?"

At the mention of heat-resistant Pikmin, Tori gave me a questioning stare. This was simply returned with me pointing to a nearby red Pikmin, then facing the edge of the cave's entrance. I really wasn't looking forward to this, but I didn't really want to have Tori push me in again.

Closing my eyes, I jumped in, though I couldn't really help myself from screaming all the way down.


End file.
